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December 3 is the 337th (in leap years the 338th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 28 days remaining.
Events
- 1818 - Illinois becomes the 21st U.S. state
- 1828 - U.S. presidential election, 1828: Challenger Andrew Jackson beats incumbent John Quincy Adams and is elected President of the United States.
- 1854 - Eureka Stockade: More than twenty goldminers at Ballarat, Australia were killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licences. Claimed by many to be the birth of Australian democracy.
- 1901 - US President Theodore Roosevelt delivers a 20,000-word speech to the House of Representatives asking Congress curb the power of trusts "within reasonable limits".
- 1904 - The Jovian moon Himalia is discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine at Lick Observatory.
- 1912 - First Balkan War ends - Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia (the Balkan League) sign an armistice with Turkey, ending the two-month long war.
- 1917 - After nearly 20 years of planning and construction, the Quebec Bridge opens to traffic (the bridge partially collapsed on August 29, 1907 and September 11, 1916).
- 1928 - In Rio de Janeiro, a seaplane sunk near Cap Arcona with a group of people paying homage to Alberto Santos-Dumont on board.
- 1929 - Great Depression: US President Herbert Hoover announces to U.S. Congress that the worst effects of the recent stock market crash are behind the nation and the American people have regained faith in the economy.
- 1936 - Radio station WQXR is officially founded
- 1937 - The Dandy, the world's longest running comic, was first published.
- 1944 - Civil war breaks out in a newly-liberated Greece, between Communists and royalists.
- 1947 - Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire opens on Broadway.
- 1953 - The Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty between the United States and Republic of China is signed in Washington, DC.
- 1964 - Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Police arrest over 800 students at the University of California, Berkeley, following their takeover and massive sit-in at the administration building protesting the UC Regents' decision to forbid Vietnam War protests on UC property.
- 1967 - At Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, 53-year-old Louis Washkansky becomes the first human to receive a heart transplant, but dies 18 days later from double pneumonia. The transplant team was headed by Christiaan Barnard.
- 1967 - The luxury train 20th Century Limited completes its last run from New York City to Chicago, Illinois (the train was inaugurated on June 15, 1902).
- 1970 - October Crisis: In Montreal, Quebec, kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross is released by the Front de Libération du Québec terrorist group after being held hostage for 60 days. Police negotiate his release and in return the Government of Canada grants five terrorists from the FLQ's Chenier Cell their request for safe passage to Cuba.
- 1973 - Pioneer program: Pioneer 10 sends back the first close-up images of Jupiter.
- 1976 - Patrick Hillery becomes the sixth President of Ireland.
- 1979 - In Cincinnati, Ohio, a stampede for seats at Riverfront Coliseum during a Who concert kills eleven fans (band members were not made aware of the deaths until after the show).
- 1982 - A soil sample is taken from Times Beach, Missouri that would be found to contain 300 times the safe level of dioxin.
- 1984 - Bhopal Disaster: A methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, kills more than 3,800 people outright and injures anywhere from 150,000 to 600,000 others (some 6,000 of whom would later die from their injuries) in one of the worst industrial disasters in history.
- 1989 - Cold War: In a meeting off the coast of Malta, US President George H. W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev release statements indicating that the cold war between their nations may be coming to an end (some commentators from both nations exaggerated the wording and independently declared the Cold War over).
- 1990 - At Detroit Metropolitan Airport, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 carrying Northwest Airlines Flight 1482 collides with a Boeing 727 carrying Northwest Airlines Flight 299 on the runway, killing 8 passengers and 4 crewmembers aboard flight 1482.
- 1992 - UN Security Council Resolution 794 is unanimously passed, approving a coalition of United Nations peacekeepers led by the United States to form UNITAF, tasked with ensuring humanitarian aid gets distributed and establishing peace in Somalia.
- 1992 - The Greek oil tanker Aegean Sea carrying 80,000 tonnes of crude oil runs aground in a storm while on approach to La Coruña, Spain, and spills much of its cargo.
- 1997 - In Ottawa, Canada, representatives from 121 countries sign a treaty prohibiting manufacture and deployment of anti-personnel landmines. The United States, People's Republic of China, and Russia do not sign the treaty, however.
- 1999 - After rowing for 81 days and 2,962 miles, Tori Murden becomes the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by rowboat alone when she reaches Guadeloupe from the Canary Islands.
- 1999 - NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.
Births
- 1684 - Ludvig Holberg, historian and writer (d. 1754)
- 1755 - Gilbert Stuart, painter (d. 1828)
- 1826 - George McClellan, Union general (d. 1885)
- 1838 - Cleveland Abbe, meteorologist (d. 1916)
- 1838 - Octavia Hill, English housing and open-space activist (d. 1912)
- 1842 - Ellen Swallow Richards, American scientist (d. 1911)
- 1857 - Carl Koller, eye surgeon (d. 1944)
- 1857 - Joseph Conrad, writer (d. 1924)
- 1883 - Anton Webern, composer (d. 1945)
- 1895 - Anna Freud, psychoanalyst (d. 1982)
- 1899 - Ikeda Hayato, Japanese prime minister (d. 1965)
- 1900 - Richard Kuhn, German biochemist, winner 1938 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 1967)
- 1900 - Ulrich Inderbinen, mountain guide (d. 2004)
- 1911 - Nino Rota, composer (d. 1979)
- 1921 - Phyllis Curtin, American soprano
- 1923 - Wolfgang Neuss, cabaretist and actor (d. 1989)
- 1925 - Kim Dae-jung, President of South Korea
- 1925 - Ferlin Husky, country music singer
- 1927 - Andy Williams, singer
- 1930 - Jean-Luc Godard, film director
- 1931 - Franz Josef Degenhardt, author and singer
- 1932 - Corry Brokken, Dutch singer and Eurovision Song Contest winner
- 1934 - Viktor Gorbatko, cosmonaut
- 1937 - Bobby Allison, automobile racer
- 1942 - Alice Schwarzer, journalist
- 1948 - Ozzy Osbourne, singer
- 1949 - John Akii-Bua, hurdler (d. 1997)
- 1949 - Mickey Thomas, singer (Jefferson Starship)
- 1951 - Rick Mears, automobile racer
- 1955 - Steven Culp, actor
- 1960 - Daryl Hannah, actor
- 1960 - Julianne Moore, actor
- 1965 - Steve Harris, actor
- 1965 - Katarina Witt, figure skater
- 1968 - Brendan Fraser, actor
Deaths
- 1048 - Al-Biruni, mathematician
- 1154 - Pope Anastasius IV
- 1815 - John Carroll - First Roman Catholic Archbishop in the U.S.
- 1888 - Carl Zeiss, german lens maker (b. 1816)
- 1894 - Robert Louis Stevenson, writer
- 1919 - Pierre-Auguste Renoir, painter
- 1941 - Christian Sinding, composer
- 1949 - Maria Ouspenskaya, actor
- 1972 - Bill Johnson, jazz musician (b. 1872)
- 1973 - Emile Christian, jazz musician (b. 1895)
- 1980 - Oswald Mosley, British politician
- 1995 - Robertson Davies, author
- 1999 - Madeline Kahn, actor, comedian (b. 1942)
- 2000 - Gwendolyn Brooks, poet (b. 1917)
- 2002 - Glenn Quinn, actor
- 2002 - Peter Löwitsch, actor
- 2003 - David Hemmings, British actor
- 2004 - Shiing-shen Chern
Holidays and observances
December 2 - December 4 - November 3 - January 3 -- listing of all days
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